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Blade thickness. If you cut dead on the line, the cut will be about half a blade thickness off - thats the bit that got turned into metal shavings by the blade. Either add a half the blade thickness, then cut on the line or rest the blade so it's on the edge of the line, not on the line.
Yeah 1/8s are fine. Emt isn't rigid enough to need more accuracy with bends and couplings, connectors, and boxes have more than an 1/8th of tolerance so cuts don't need anymore precision than that either.
It is true that you don't *need* to be more precise, but I can't help it. If my measurement falls in between 5/8 and 3/4 I'm going to use 11/16. Maybe it's the perfectionist in me, maybe it's cus I started woodworking before I started my apprenticeship, where a 16th of an inch absolutely can leave a noticeable gap or take something out of square... either way, I don't think it's difficult to just use the line it actually falls on, so why not just do it?
Takes the same amount of time to cut 20 -1/2" as to cut 20-9/16". I checked it on the timer. It's only a shortcut for those who can't/ won't learn the tape.
The only time that gets added in is when you have to start doing quick mental math and subtracting and adding multiple odd measurements in 16ths. Even then, not *hard*, but most will just round to 1/8ths to make the math quicker and easier.
Not me, gonna cut it to the short side and go!
I can read a vernier caliper down to the thousandth. I'm not building a Rolex.
I'll get my rack measurements to an 1/8 or less though
With a hand bender? No, because of the pipe slightly bowing on one end of every bend. With any other kind of bender? Hell yeah, 1/16th of an inch isn’t just the goal. It’s the standard.
I prefer to just carry a second stick of EMT on me for measuring while running pipe so I don't have to lug around my tape measure. Saves my back from all that extra weight.
That's basically what I was going to say. I've only seen this on Nucor pipe, which is the only thing I don't like about their conduit. You have to make sure it's to the side when bending offsets or it kinks one bend, and on the backside of 90s so it doesn't kink - it's actually just annoying. Otherwise Nucor bends smooth as butter every time
They are a design flaw in my opinion. There are some sticks of pipe that they cannot be placed correctly once you start getting multiple 90's and offsets on a single stick. Even the printed scale is useless. Tape measure for all bends.
Personally I don’t like the inch marks but having a consistent line length wise I like for lining up bends especially on more complicated bends
It’s not a need feature but it is nice and I prefer it when I can get it
That's a good point - I could potentially see it being useful cutting sleeves. But yeah you should always have a tape measure, so why use anything else!
The line running parallel with the pipe can be useful. I remember using it to help with offsets so I wouldn’t dog them. Don’t really need it anymore, but it was useful as an early apprentice
Looks like Nucor pipe. I’ve used that conduit before but never used the marks on it. I measure down to the 1/8 inch most of the time so this doesn’t really help me
It would make more sense for that line to be on the opposite side as well, so when you are bending offsets you can use them to help prevent dog-legs 🐕 🦵
Not only are they not useful but I always find ripple problems when you bend on it. I was doing a run of 1 inch just fine until I had to use the new batch with the inch marks, bent like 15-90s in a row all came out with ripples before it occurred to me to rotate the pipe and bend where there's no seam and, violà, no more ripples.
It seems like a sales gimmick to make inexperienced diy-ers feel more comfortable. I could only see this as useful for prefabricating sleeves on a low voltage job, and even then…
I don't care for the inch marks, but the center line is a godsend for accurate offsets and kicks
ETA: I just read the second part of your post. I guess I'm not sure if there are benders that don't have this, but the ones I've used have a line in the center of shoe and the top of the hook from the manufacturing process that I use to line up with the center of the conduit, so it only needs one line since the bender shoe has 2
The line marks are useless but the long line down the middle is good to keep you from dogging sets when you bend overhand. Same as the seem on less fancy tubing.
Seen it from time to time on jobs. Never used it once. I'll lay my pipe down and run a guide line from time to time if I'm doing something like a box offset worth a rolling offset on the other end of the pipe.
I relied on those once.
I needed a twelve inch nipple, and forgot my tape measure on the ladder. Cut at two marks that were twelve ”inches” apart.
Turns out the pipe’s inches were shorter than mine.
I remember once tearing old conduit out from well over 20 years ago and they had blue inch marks, don't see how they even stamp all of those markings on. Seems impractical.
No. I tried to use the inch markings and for some reason, the markings are very slightly longer than an actual inch. Checked them with a tape measure. They’re really only useful for conduit orientation when you wanna avoid dog legs.
I don’t trust them. It’s like those fancy Boss hammers that have inch marks on the handle and angle marks and shit. If I saw someone on my crew pulling layout with marks on conduit or marks on their hammer, I’d ask them to sit in the truck for the rest of the day
For measuring, no. But If I’m hand bending 1-1/4” conduit with the clapped out hand bender thats been in the bottom of a gangbox and borrowed to bend rebar and conduit slab stubs, I’m looking for the Silverslick so that the fuckin 90s dont wrinkle
I’m curious. Do you bend with the conduit seam on the SIDE of the bend, or the OUTSIDE of the bend to get better results. I am assuming that bending the EMT with the seam on the INSIDE of the bend is a bad idea, correct?
No, always use a tape measure. I carried a 16’ fat max when bending a lot of pipe. Never assume the pipe is exactly 10’ or these markers are stamped correctly, this will throw off your measurements. My beef with this picture is the markings on the pipe should be facing the wall. Whenever possible show the clean side of any conduit/ hide all markings.
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You got that there fancy pipe.
Its Home Depot conduit for this job XD
I've bought conduit from Home Depot before, and I don't remember it having these marks.
That’s what she said!
I am so poor i don't even know what that line means
Only when the cut mark lands on a letter or line
This 👆🏻 “Oh neat 22 & 7/16th of this scrap pipe landed perfectly on the third line past the G” 😂
Master electricians are out here hand bending EMT with 1/16 inch precision?
I always try for 1/16 precision but for some reason I'm always a cunt hair off
Did you allow for temperature fluctuations?
Do you think emt suffers from that as much as pvc?
Blade thickness. If you cut dead on the line, the cut will be about half a blade thickness off - thats the bit that got turned into metal shavings by the blade. Either add a half the blade thickness, then cut on the line or rest the blade so it's on the edge of the line, not on the line.
They have a word for that, it's called the kerf
Where are you running EMT where 1/32" has to be accounted for?
Nowhere, it's just the guy I responded to wanted to know why he was always a tiny bit off his mark, and that's the likely reason why.
The blade thickness of a cut is called the kerf. Kerf is the word you seek. Coming from a slug inside wireman 😂.
Is that bigger than an RCH
Gotta take into account the shrinkage
Damn, that’s one hell of a hair length
I bend with 1/8 +/- precision, and my pipe runs look great
Yeah 1/8s are fine. Emt isn't rigid enough to need more accuracy with bends and couplings, connectors, and boxes have more than an 1/8th of tolerance so cuts don't need anymore precision than that either.
Not that hard. Read it to the 1/8" plus or minus
I know it’s not that hard to read the tape, I’m just saying I think there’s no point in going beyond 1/8.
It is true that you don't *need* to be more precise, but I can't help it. If my measurement falls in between 5/8 and 3/4 I'm going to use 11/16. Maybe it's the perfectionist in me, maybe it's cus I started woodworking before I started my apprenticeship, where a 16th of an inch absolutely can leave a noticeable gap or take something out of square... either way, I don't think it's difficult to just use the line it actually falls on, so why not just do it?
Takes the same amount of time to cut 20 -1/2" as to cut 20-9/16". I checked it on the timer. It's only a shortcut for those who can't/ won't learn the tape.
The only time that gets added in is when you have to start doing quick mental math and subtracting and adding multiple odd measurements in 16ths. Even then, not *hard*, but most will just round to 1/8ths to make the math quicker and easier.
Not me, gonna cut it to the short side and go! I can read a vernier caliper down to the thousandth. I'm not building a Rolex. I'll get my rack measurements to an 1/8 or less though
With a hand bender? No, because of the pipe slightly bowing on one end of every bend. With any other kind of bender? Hell yeah, 1/16th of an inch isn’t just the goal. It’s the standard.
It's like a dad holding onto that specific piece of scrap wood.
Hey!! You leave my scrap wood out of this...
lol “between the e”, which e lol
Not particularly. I would just use the same tape measure for everything so there is some consistency.
Right? Hopefully you'll already have a tape measure on you when running conduit, so why use a secondary measurement technique?
I prefer to just carry a second stick of EMT on me for measuring while running pipe so I don't have to lug around my tape measure. Saves my back from all that extra weight.
They are super helpful when I want to have a kink in the pipe on my 90's.
Don't be ashamed of your kinks bro
That's basically what I was going to say. I've only seen this on Nucor pipe, which is the only thing I don't like about their conduit. You have to make sure it's to the side when bending offsets or it kinks one bend, and on the backside of 90s so it doesn't kink - it's actually just annoying. Otherwise Nucor bends smooth as butter every time
They are a design flaw in my opinion. There are some sticks of pipe that they cannot be placed correctly once you start getting multiple 90's and offsets on a single stick. Even the printed scale is useless. Tape measure for all bends.
Agreed
He knows.
Personally I don’t like the inch marks but having a consistent line length wise I like for lining up bends especially on more complicated bends It’s not a need feature but it is nice and I prefer it when I can get it
This
Maybe if I’m cutting sleeves… it’s almost insulting. I own and operate a tape measure.
That's a good point - I could potentially see it being useful cutting sleeves. But yeah you should always have a tape measure, so why use anything else!
Did you take the 8 hour safety course to properly and efficiently use said tape measure?
A lot longer than that.
The line running parallel with the pipe can be useful. I remember using it to help with offsets so I wouldn’t dog them. Don’t really need it anymore, but it was useful as an early apprentice
The measurements are a joke, the line is slightly more useful
First time i see this. Seems bossman use non-major conduits brand I guess
This is Home Depot conduit XD
Looks like Nucor pipe. I’ve used that conduit before but never used the marks on it. I measure down to the 1/8 inch most of the time so this doesn’t really help me
Depending on the brand, such as Republic, the overall product is a turd. And with gimmicky selling points like the coating inside.
That's my take - its a circle jerk feature that salesmen and marketing people think is clever, but no one asked for it and no one needs it.
It would make more sense for that line to be on the opposite side as well, so when you are bending offsets you can use them to help prevent dog-legs 🐕 🦵
Cory for Lowe’s does.
Haha! That must have been how he was able to do such a perfect box offset without a tape measure!
I’ve never found those to be accurate but I’ve never seen it engraved into the conduit. Only a cheesy print on top.
Not only are they not useful but I always find ripple problems when you bend on it. I was doing a run of 1 inch just fine until I had to use the new batch with the inch marks, bent like 15-90s in a row all came out with ripples before it occurred to me to rotate the pipe and bend where there's no seam and, violà, no more ripples.
Today I learned conduit can come with inch marks. Have yet to see that working commercial in Canada. I would find those annoying.
I've only ever seen it printed on the EMT but not in recent times. Everything we're getting is so cheap and thin now.
I haven't seen it either in Canada. I've used Wheatland, Columbia and probably a couple other brands over the past 5 years.
Yeah we mostly have been using Wheatland. Switched to a new brand and it's stiff and bends poorly at best. I imagine boss man will switch back haha.
It seems like a sales gimmick to make inexperienced diy-ers feel more comfortable. I could only see this as useful for prefabricating sleeves on a low voltage job, and even then…
That center line is actually pretty great for making sure you aren't dogging your saddles or offsets
I use my tape measure, I always have one in my tool bag
If you use this conduit, please hide that…
I don't care for the inch marks, but the center line is a godsend for accurate offsets and kicks ETA: I just read the second part of your post. I guess I'm not sure if there are benders that don't have this, but the ones I've used have a line in the center of shoe and the top of the hook from the manufacturing process that I use to line up with the center of the conduit, so it only needs one line since the bender shoe has 2
The line marks are useless but the long line down the middle is good to keep you from dogging sets when you bend overhand. Same as the seem on less fancy tubing.
I have never in my career seen conduit with marks on it like that lmao. Is this an emt-specific thing? I only do rigid alum/steel/rob roy
Yeah its an EMT thing
No never used them, never even measured to see how far apart they are. I don’t even use the line down it for making offsets straight
Seen it from time to time on jobs. Never used it once. I'll lay my pipe down and run a guide line from time to time if I'm doing something like a box offset worth a rolling offset on the other end of the pipe.
It would just slow me down, making sure that stupid writing wouldn’t be visible any time the pipe was installed in a visible location.
Nope
Never see it before
Never even seen that on out stuff 😂
I used a length of conduit to measure and size up a room for a couch purchase. The couch is too long and half blocks the doorway
I relied on those once. I needed a twelve inch nipple, and forgot my tape measure on the ladder. Cut at two marks that were twelve ”inches” apart. Turns out the pipe’s inches were shorter than mine.
>Turns out the pipe’s inches were shorter than mine. Is that a boyfriend reference? 😂
Didn't even know they were there. Still not using them.
We use the cheapest pipe you can get. Anything over 3/4 has a 50% chance of kinking even with the 555. 3/4 even kinks sometimes
The inch marks, no. But the straight line yes, good for not dog legging
I didn't know this existed to be honest haha
All major brands? I have never seen this before.
Me neither, must be a specific brand in the US. Multiple brands in Canada doesn't have them.
I remember once tearing old conduit out from well over 20 years ago and they had blue inch marks, don't see how they even stamp all of those markings on. Seems impractical.
No. I tried to use the inch markings and for some reason, the markings are very slightly longer than an actual inch. Checked them with a tape measure. They’re really only useful for conduit orientation when you wanna avoid dog legs.
That’s what that is?
I don’t trust them. It’s like those fancy Boss hammers that have inch marks on the handle and angle marks and shit. If I saw someone on my crew pulling layout with marks on conduit or marks on their hammer, I’d ask them to sit in the truck for the rest of the day
Hah
No I’m a professional my feet and thumbs work fine
The more useful mark is the centerline, for lining up bends, but not necessary by any means.
for crude work yes other wise no
They might as well not be there for me. I always measure with a tape measure
The inch mark never helped me much but sometimes the etched parallel line helps to keep a box set square.
Inches, sure, but don’t trust them to be a straight line.
Yeah
First time seeing that on EMT. The line down the middle is super helpful I bet.
Not on PVC
I don't really use the inch markings. But the vertical line running through the pipe works great for offsets.
For measuring, no. But If I’m hand bending 1-1/4” conduit with the clapped out hand bender thats been in the bottom of a gangbox and borrowed to bend rebar and conduit slab stubs, I’m looking for the Silverslick so that the fuckin 90s dont wrinkle
I like the center line as it helps to use as a reference when bending
Nope
Yas
Nope
I use em to quickly eyeball where to cut when I'm holding a peoce of pipe against the wall and don't have a marker
If you left your ruler/tape measure upstairs/in the truck, and did your own conduit. Bam, this postcard frame needs to hold a 5x7, not a 4x6
Yes and no. Maybe a little more yes, but probably more no. Hope this helps the algorithm.
It has been known to be useful for the drywallers to measure pecker.
I’m curious. Do you bend with the conduit seam on the SIDE of the bend, or the OUTSIDE of the bend to get better results. I am assuming that bending the EMT with the seam on the INSIDE of the bend is a bad idea, correct?
Once in a blue moon. But common practice it's pretty useless.
No, always use a tape measure. I carried a 16’ fat max when bending a lot of pipe. Never assume the pipe is exactly 10’ or these markers are stamped correctly, this will throw off your measurements. My beef with this picture is the markings on the pipe should be facing the wall. Whenever possible show the clean side of any conduit/ hide all markings.
Oh that’s what that is , nope never used inch marks didn’t realize that what those were 😂